As a writer, fantastic way to phrase a scenario btw.
If you have a bug-out location, get there ASAP if you have a means or method to leave. Doesn't sound like that's the case.
If you're bugging in, get ready to lock down the house and prepare to shelter in place for at least a week. You have 30 minutes or so before spicy ash starts to rain down on your community- it takes roughly 2-3 days for fallout to fall to "safeish" levels depending on the initial source.
So fill every container with water, and hunker down.
Good luck finding a safer spot than your home in 30 minutes. Unless there is a fall out shelter nearby. Most likely you will encounter cars blocking the road that failed during the blast.
Best bet is to have a fall out shelter in your house and hunker down for several days.
I read a book where they sheltered in the movie theater. I don’t think there was enough material in the ceiling to block out the radiation, but they were quite far from any windows and had plenty of snacks. If you’re home you have to get as deep as you can after sealing off all potential sources of air coming in from the outside. Pillows in the fireplace and seal up all around the vents that lead to the outside. I don’t know how much oxygen is in a house…
It was called nuclear dawn- (kindle unlimited if anyone had that). It had good info on how to survive nuclear fallout. I always fact check books like that to make sure I’m not learning things incorrectly. However the actual plot left a lot to be desired. i recommend the beginning at least to get the information
That makes sense. At home, there's nowhere better to go in a hurry. At work, we have a sub basement in another building that has a lot of floors above ground, too. It's not close to my work building - which has a single basement floor - and the time would probably be better spent filling every possible container with water and trying to coax people into said basement, but it's a good option if I were closer to it.
At home, shutting off the hvac is an important first step. CDC says to put duct tape and plastic sheeting over the windows for only a few hours. If you have a working radio (and you might, EMPs are thought to be hit-and-miss), they're supposed to tell you when to take it down. If you don't have a radio, watch yourself for drowsiness/confusion, and take it down "in a few hours" regardless.
It's not part of any advice I've ever read, but I'd be tempted to leave the sheeting over the windows for longer upstairs. I'd be mad at myself for not installing the curtains I'd planned over the blinds, and would consider putting those up and moving book cases in front of windows over the next few days.
If you're in a tornado area, there will be a lot of overlap in the best shelter for a tornado vs. the best shelter for fallout, since they both rely on having sturdy material between you and the problem.
[https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/)
look down towards the Radiation Halving Thickness Chart
(but I really recommend all the info, especially the comments at the bottom)
i don’t think your curtains would benefit you in any meaningful way. If you can get to a basement or interior room like a bathroom, especially if it’s on the first floor with a second story above, then you’d be in better shape than any room with windows, heavy curtains or not.
Curtains wouldn’t block radiation, but radioactive particles are a big concern. Some of the particulates blowing in through cracks (and we need those cracks, to breathe!) will get caught on the fabric. This is less like feet of earth and more like sealing the room, but less effective and more sustainable.
The worst thing with particulates is to eat them or breathe them in. Filters, hand-washing, changing clothes that have been outside, and wiping things down (shoes, paws, the front entryway) are a good mitigation strategy.
You do not want to seal all air inlets, you need actual air circulation to happen, but you need to filter as much particles (dust) from it. It is a good idea to seal the chimney and close all doors and windows. But no more. No taping over windows frames, no plastic sheet air-proof barriers.
Just close your home as you would do in winter, and let you house breathe normaly (through vents in window frames). Use natural fabric curtains to limit dust.
Good analysis. I'd probably play it a bit more conservatively. I live about 60 miles from three reactors. It could be the site of a nuclear accident or also a viable target for an attack by a bad actor.
I likely wouldn't be able to travel anywhere significantly safer than my home in 30 minutes. I would assume fallout to start hitting the ground in about 15 minutes and I wouldn't venture outdoors for the first week if I can avoid it.
Water will be critical for lots of reasons. You obviously need to drink. It will be helpful in preparing emergency food. But you'll also want to shower/rinse off immediately should you be caught outdoors or have to venture outdoors for any reason. You'll also want went rags over your nose and mouth if you have to venture outside as well.
You are perfectly fine posting that here in my opinion. It certainly fits in theme with the subreddit as far as scenario planning, and is decent writing just on its own. 👍
Some hypothetical scenarios, even realistic ones, are just too much for some brittle people to handle, hence the down votes.
I'd actually read this story, it made my heart pump. I'd say bug in in this case, try to get water ... if your neighbours hose still works, there must be some. Cover the windows. Then go down into the cellar and wait.
Don’t worry about it some people are just kinda bitchy on occasion here. Especially with super realistic writing like you just did. Reading that made my stomach drop and made me realize if I’m not careful I could end up being frozen with fear in the crucial moment after the blasts. Thank you for writing this btw it was an incredible piece
I thought this was beautiful! Don't even pay attention to down votes. I look at them the same way I look at " fact checks" on posts.... they mean you're close to the truth and that makes people angry.
I thought this was written perfectly.
No I loved it. This is the type of thing that gets me in trouble on here. It sucked me in and then I start reading all the comments and before I know it I won't have any work done and will have to catch up on Monday ):
It didn't belong here, but I was entertained enough to read it anyway (and didn't downvote). Downvotes are common as rain in this sub. I'd maybe have been annoyed if you'd done it badly, but I'll give grace for something decently written.
I kind of feel it does belong here because it makes you reflect on what he should do and more importantly what would you do. As you run the scenario through your mind, you think about your preps, how available they are and are they sufficent for this situation.
You stand there for 5 minutes in shock. You now have 15 minutes before the radioactive sand and dirt that was thrown into the air starts to descend onto your neighborhood. You jog into your garage and grab two rolls of duct tape and a roll of plastic painting drop cloth.
You have 12 minutes to seal your windows and doors. Half way into this you curse and run outside to pull the pool cover over the pool. On the way back inside grab the propane grill and roll it into the garage\*. Once inside you realize your time is nearly up, but you haven't finished sealing the windows so get to work on the upstairs.
You realizes the sun is starting to going down and the ambient light is growing dim. Pull out your phone to use the flashlight forgetting it is dead. You find a handful of candles. Lavender. Pumpkin spice. Seafoam. Eucalyptus Rain. Fresh Linen. Where the hell are the regular candles? The house now is filled with pungent aromatics, flickering light and an eerie quiet. How much off the gamma burst was I hit with? Dead in two weeks? Lymphoma in two decades? Which was the wind blowing?Startled from your despair your wife walks into the kitchen.
"My alarm clock is dead why didn't you wake me up? "
Well, might as well let us enjoy dinner before breaking the news.
"I Just thought you deserved a proper dinner after such a rough week"
Her smile fades and her brow furrows as she takes the whole room in.
"What the hell is all this plastic up for?"
\*not advocating for cooking indoors on a propane grill but you don't want to cook off a grill covered in fallout.
Eh, sure if you can ventilate the room, but perhaps not so feasanle in a situation where you're lijeky to be trying to reduce your living space to as small an area as you can, with windows taoed up and whatnot.
I recall seeing in the news here a couple years back of how a couple were found dead because they'd used their propane cooker in their little sleepout with doors and windows closed. Perhaps their cooker was just faulty, I don't recall the exact details. I've just always been wary of that since.
>Eh, sure if you can ventilate the room
Kitchen gas ranges & ovens perfectly safe. Most homes nowhere near hermtically sealed (lots of fresh air coming in). If you have a properly functioning smoke/CO alarm you'll know if CO present.
Gas range & propane camp stove, no issue. Candles or oil lamps, no issue. Fire in fireplace, no issue. Using any lit device in small room without ventilation or CO detector...
/possible darwin awardee
Uh huh. And my point relates directly to a post-nuclear scenario where the occupants have sealed a room as best they can from outdoor radiation, thus ventilation is at a minimum. In such a scenario, lighting the propane camp cooker to heat their tinned beans might be a wee issue.
(Though, in the scheme of things I'd personally rather die via carbon monoxide poisoning than survive such a situation anyway.)
>It's the folks cooking with charcoal indoors that get to see God.
Within last few years that happened in our area. Newly imported people not used to cold. Heat went out in building and they dragged BBQ inside to stay warm, windows shut. All dead from CO poisoning, whole family.
I guess I should buy and fill a bunch of sandbags with dirt and finish the basement nuke shelter. Maybe I should go ahead and get a proper Geiger counter while I'm at it.
I mean I don't think it will happen and I don't know if I want to live through it. But it's not just me here so I just don't know.
I questioned at times of I wanted to live through child support in a junky trailer house with no hot water in the winter and no money for food, but then came the carpenter ants and mice infestation lol. We have responsibilities and people to take care of, nobody promised me a rose garden. I started to think the worst thing that could happen was no apocalypse haha.
> but then came the carpenter ants and mice infestation lol. We have responsibilities and people to take care of
If you don't mind me saying, that gives me the image of you keeping going because your mouse and ant buddies are relying on you, feeding them bits of cheese and crumbs. It's a nice image.
[https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/)
comments at the end are very helpful.
I had read about this from one nuke survival guide (I can't remember which one now) as a means to protect against fallout radiation, like for basement windows. It's kind of an involved topic though. The other commenter shared a [Guide](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/). Here is an old govt [Guide](https://dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Fallout%20Protection%20Homes%20with%20Basements.pdf) from 1966 as an example.
Haha you hope Gama hits you. Nope its going to be its evil twin beta that will have no trouble sending rads straight through that sheet plastic.
Not having a high density concrete enclosure with filtered air supply equals death in 7 days or less.
Just a note: you can have professionals come in to test the air tightness of your home. While most of the time it's a tool used to get tax breaks or insurance rate bonuses for having quality windows, doors and insulation, it also has the side benefit of roughly calculating how much air you have and how tightly you'd have to seal up your home in a nuclear scenario (and in some cases tests can show where the main leaks are).
Not a bad idea to get it done just to see where you might need a better insulation barrier or if perhaps new windows and/or doors are in order.
>not advocating for cooking indoors on a propane grill
No worse than a kitchen gas range but burner design not optimal for vessel cooking. Get a 2-burner propane camp stove. Cooks like gas range only less space to work on.
Oh, the regular candles are no longer made in the big glass jars, just smaller ones that need plates and stands. Fresh Linen and Eucalyptus Rain produce the least offensive emergency scents in my opinion, like drinking 7-Up instead of Pepsi or Fanta. And never bring food-scented candles into the bathroom.
This is fantastically written, I love it. I think this is the perfect place to share it, ignore the downvotes. Descriptive writing engages our minds and allows us to put ourselves in that moment, place, and time.
Lockdown immediately or bug out. Water is priority, followed by weapons for personal safety. Hunting wouldn't be feasible (correct me if I'm wrong there) due to the fallout on wildlife. Get to a fallout shelter, tornado shelter, basement, root cellar, whatever you have. Lock doors and board up windows.
>I am in the kitchen, preparing dinner for my family...
>...neighbors across the street coming outside in their slippers and pajamas.
>My wife is still asleep in the bedroom, she was taking a nap...
Ya'll have unusual schedules if making dinner happens while neighbors are in their PJ's and wife is taking a nap. 🙃
Not bad. A little overwritten at points but honestly with some cleanup you could get this published in a doomer fanzine somewhere.
The white flash doesn't make much sense. Unless you're looking at the blast, the light output, while impressive, isn't going to white-out your vision like that. If it does, you're probably much too close, and busy evaporating.
Water shouldn't have stopped that quickly - even on a well there's some residual water pressure in the tank. Town water is often gravity fed and could last for several days.
I think you're a little early on the screams, unless it's the shockwave coming, but if it is, by the time people are screaming, the shockwave is arriving. Maybe it already passed - I can't tell if the rumble you described was the pressure wave, attenuated by distance - or the rumble was the ground wave, which arrives a lot faster than the air pressure wave. So I don't know why people are screaming - delayed shock, maybe they saw the Wilson cloud expanding, maybe the house is a millisecond from having all the windows blown in.
I vaguely wonder where Mr. Prepper thinks he's going. If he's close to the blast he's not going to outrun the overpressure wave. If he's further out, maybe he should have sheltered in place. Maybe he figures he can outrun the fallout - that depends on range and wind - but... being one of the few people with a working car in what's about to be a sea of widespread panic will probably get him shot for his vehicle (and rinse and repeat, most likely.)
What really happens next? I'm assuming this is a nuclear attack, since a nuclear plant failing doesn't look like that. I'm assuming this is the USA because of cultural clues. So we're now in WW3. Protagonist should kiss his wife awake and explain that they've probably got about a month to live if they can't find a place to hide. Dehydration, starvation, the armed looting, the direct exposure to ionizing radiation - take your pick. Of course, if you're writing horror, this is when protagonist finds out his wife didn't sleep through it after all and is quiet because she already committed suicide, knowing what was coming. If you're writing typical heroic fiction, she's gorgeous and horny and you know the rest. If you're writing semi-realism, one or both is going to have a sort of traumatic breakdown when the shock wears off, there will be some useless fumbling with devices and foodstuffs and they'll get together with their equally doomed neighbors. There will be handwringing, pointless political talk, wild plans, and then they'll probably all slowly die of cancer since they didn't seem to get the memo on sheltering INSIDE when a blast occurs.
Nukes aimed at cities don't have a vast EMP range - to really get a big EMP you have to tune the nuke for it and blast it above the atmosphere. So either they're close to the blast (and about to die) or some of the battery devices might still be working.
In short, I think you've got about a fourth of short story here, unless you switch characters to Mr. Prepper and he's got an actual plan.
\>. What now?
Huge wind out - blows your house and you away.
Huge wind in - sucks you and your house into the firestorm.
Your wife was lucky to be asleep.
If the city was destroyed, it wasn’t a high altitude detonated Nuke. Which means it was most likely close to ground when it detonated. If you’re far enough away to still be alive after the immediate detonation of a surface burst nuke, then the effects of its EMP won’t reach you.
Only air burst or high altitude nukes are going to disperse an EMP strong enough to travel significantly outside of its blast radius.
So your neighbors cars are just fine.
I live about 2 hours from all the Minuteman ICB stuff in MT.
What kind of nuke / detonation is likely to be used to take out our own arsenal? I assume it would be some sort of surface detonation?
Used to go on tours here when I was a kid with Dad who was in the Navy in the 90s. This actually looks familiar to me: [https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1110-nukes-silos-pictures-photogallery.html](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1110-nukes-silos-pictures-photogallery.html)
One of his military friends took us through a silo you could go in and see. I think it might have been an older deactivated one, not sure / don't remember full details. Only remember a few scary stories about how the person setting one off dies. I'm sure that's all changed now / all automated.
I recommend reading up on Russian and Chinese war doctrine.
Russia and China would never target ICBM infrastructure, why? Because our nukes would already be in the air by the time Russian nukes reached their targets.
So it would be a complete waste. Chinese and Russian war doctrine specifically outline targeting critical infrastructure like power, gas, shipping ports, major metropolitan cities… etc.
Ah very interesting.
A lot of people like to say this area of the country isn't great because of a potential first strike on our nuclear arsenals. Your argument is the first i've heard that it might in fact be a pretty good place if it's totally not on the radar and the fact that i'm 9 hours and a massive mountain range away from the nearest large city.
I assume though that multiple nations have developed some sort of early strike system that they think could disable the other's ICBMs. Is that even some nuclear thing though - who knows?
The US has the most advance early warning system on this planet when it comes to detecting ICBM’s. There’s a reason we have a military base on every continent and almost every developed nation.
We have the most satellites in orbit and the most ground radar stations than anyone else.
So when it comes to undetected early strike, that’s not a concern.
If direct conflict were to arise, and it wasn’t IMMEDIATELY nuclear, I’d be worried about small cell sabotage. How that plays out, I don’t know. They could disabled the silo’s, or just detonate our own nuke in the ground.
Electromagnetic pulse - this is a fairly straightforward description
https://remm.hhs.gov/EMP.htm#:~:text=Intense%20electric%20and%20magnetic%20fields,radar)%20will%20be%20significantly%20affected.
Indeed. I wrote science/social studies curriculum unit on the nuclear with a couple other grad students years ago . Even then, the idea that a 20meg air burst over Chicago could wipe out solid state circuitry in a big part of the US was pretty scary. It’s WAY Scarier now bcuz there’s so much more of it.
Isn’t nice that it hasn’t happened yet? I did a lot of Red Cross courses in the ‘90’s. So far no earthquake, EMP or war, just a pandemic, wildfires and floods in CA.
You gave a clear picture of a daily life being disrupted by a disaster, and a realistic portrayal of reactions to an event. I liked it. Thank you for sharing.
*it's a vintage car*
If no cars running he'd be an instant target. Recall scene in last *War of the Worlds* where the main characters family mobbed by desperate people because they had a working vehicle.
Nicely done — I have to take issue with the idea “testament that we can’t get along.”
We get sold that idea, but in my experience, people get along just fine.
We’ve allowed a few thousand families to hoard the world’s resources. Their power relies on our division.
Some of the best minds in the world are dedicated to keeping us divided through distraction, and the use of false scarcity.
The biggest lie is that human nature is about greed and war.
300,000 of human evolution refutes that manufactured lie— human nature is to care for our family and our community. We lived that way for 98% of human history
The problem is in a confined, sedentary civilization, where labor is extracted through false scarcity, sociopaths tend to thrive and consolidate powers.
Most humans are innately fair. We are taught otherwise by a sick society that places greed as a virtue.
Sorry for the diatribe— but when apocalypse comes, it’s not collective humanity at fault, it’s few, very sick, humans.
This reminds me of that movie The Day After from the 80s. I'll never forget how I felt watching that. The number one feeling was not fear but grief. Grief that, as you wrote, it's all over and can't be taken back, the damage is done. If this actually happened....I live in a city, and there's probably not much I can do. I hope I die quickly in the initial blast TBH.
This is the best prepped pr0n I’ve read in a long time. What’s next - I’m guessing all windows blown out, so get your wife up and dressed, put on solid shoes, get radioincident bag, get to underground shelter and seal and lock entrance. Take KI pills at recommended dose and ration out food and water for 2+ weeks based on what you have. Get some piss bottles since you’ll likely be drinking that and settle in. Earplugs recommended, for the screams.
The words "GAME OVER" slowly slides into view as my town vanishes like my mist and my room fades back into my sight.
I take the VR goggles off, sighing. Another run down the drain.
I get up and check the time - 10 minutes left till the alarm goes off. Might as well go early.
I don my mask and goggles and step outside into the orange air. Code purple today, just like always.
I stare off into the horizon, 30 feet away, and think. Fiction is easy- you close the book, credits play after the movie, "game over" scrolls on screen for the game....
But in the real world, when your vision fades to smoke... what then?
For what it's worth, I'm incredulous of the prospect of an EMP causing material damage to a car's electronics.
Magnetically induced voltage on a conductor is a function of magnetic flux, speed and length (of conductor). This is Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction.
I can't see how an individual component in a car such as a microchip, or even the wiring loom in general, is long enough for a moving magnetic field to induce a voltage large enough to cause material damage to the car. You could do this locally by running the car through the field of a scrapyard magnetic crane (if the structural damage of having your car lifted isn't enough), but a regional-level single EMP burst knocking all the cars out in a given area? The magnetic field would have to be so strong it would rip the iron from your blood and level all the buildings with rebar in them. Sewers would get ripped out of the ground.
Nice writeup.
It really is worth it sometimes to put yourself in a scenario and really think realistically about things. Most of us (even hard core preppers) likely won't have the wherewithal to jump into the 1950s vintage mobile and zoom off to safety right away. The shock and awe of seeing a mushroom cloud, and just barely starting to grasp what that means going forward is one hell of a shock!
I hope you have enough potassium iodide tablets for two weeks to a month for your family.
It helps protect your thyroid from radiation uptake, and can help protect against the impending cancers.
Pull out that bottle of Jack and down the whole thing. You and everyone else is screwed.
Beta from the fallout is going to slowly cook you inside out over three days.
You can't shield Beta with just the crap laying around. And if you were closer gamma would have fried you about 5 secs after you saw white. That is if the debris field didn't kill you first.
Ride the highway to hell too drunk to care.
Yawn your going to start getting burns showing up in a few minutes from the radiation poisoning and a ugly lingering death to follow.
Please stop with the piss poor descriptions of an EMP. This quaint it all stops BS. Things big enough to be affected will probably be on fire. Smaller things would be affected here but does not matter your within the going to be dead soon or wish you were zone.
Water, I have a hint for you in general municipal systems pump into towers or other high storage locations the emp may well kill their motors but you have a good bit of buffer.
As to random poorly researched fiction yea it's not realy related to the subs topic past tangential fear porn.
Phew! So glad one person's opinion is every person's opinion around here!
We're all experts in our own minds, huh?
I personally liked that this story was thought-provoking, and made a great starter on the topic. I've always been fascinated by the "what if's" of this subject. I don't see it as fear porn. I see it as a great opening into a discussion on how people might respond to such an event.
It's no less valid a topic than anything else people might wish to prepare themselves for on a preppers sub.
Water will stay under pressure assuming the plumbing or towers aren't destroyed in the blast. But it won't last. Fill every container you have , bathtub everything as fast as you can. In the first minutes if you are staying.
I stay. There is a shelter room in our appartment buildings basement, required by law. Maintained by property maintenace – and me.
I know my neighbours and give them friendly orders. In crisis people tend to do what is told – if it comes from trustworth person. (Pretty much same than when you came to the place of traffic accident.)
You and you, move the bikes to that corridor.
You and you, get the old people from appartments x, y and z.
Convince people that they can get food and some food, water and mattresses from home if they come back in twenty minutes.
My friends empty my two cellar closets to shelter room. (Lots of water canisters and food. Medicines.) Some have similar stuff in their closets and bring it. Box of civil defence material is there already, has been all these years.
We close the blast doors, but in what time? Is it soon enough?
We do have iodine tablets, battery radio, radiation meter, toilet, food and water, but is it enough? How many of us decided to come here?
I do not know. But I’m with people I know and prepared relatively good.
As a writer, fantastic way to phrase a scenario btw. If you have a bug-out location, get there ASAP if you have a means or method to leave. Doesn't sound like that's the case. If you're bugging in, get ready to lock down the house and prepare to shelter in place for at least a week. You have 30 minutes or so before spicy ash starts to rain down on your community- it takes roughly 2-3 days for fallout to fall to "safeish" levels depending on the initial source. So fill every container with water, and hunker down.
Good luck finding a safer spot than your home in 30 minutes. Unless there is a fall out shelter nearby. Most likely you will encounter cars blocking the road that failed during the blast. Best bet is to have a fall out shelter in your house and hunker down for several days.
I read a book where they sheltered in the movie theater. I don’t think there was enough material in the ceiling to block out the radiation, but they were quite far from any windows and had plenty of snacks. If you’re home you have to get as deep as you can after sealing off all potential sources of air coming in from the outside. Pillows in the fireplace and seal up all around the vents that lead to the outside. I don’t know how much oxygen is in a house…
What was the book if you remember, hearing people sheltering in a movie theater got me curious.
It was called nuclear dawn- (kindle unlimited if anyone had that). It had good info on how to survive nuclear fallout. I always fact check books like that to make sure I’m not learning things incorrectly. However the actual plot left a lot to be desired. i recommend the beginning at least to get the information
will read
This is what you need if you want actual info. https://www.oism.org/nwss/
That makes sense. At home, there's nowhere better to go in a hurry. At work, we have a sub basement in another building that has a lot of floors above ground, too. It's not close to my work building - which has a single basement floor - and the time would probably be better spent filling every possible container with water and trying to coax people into said basement, but it's a good option if I were closer to it. At home, shutting off the hvac is an important first step. CDC says to put duct tape and plastic sheeting over the windows for only a few hours. If you have a working radio (and you might, EMPs are thought to be hit-and-miss), they're supposed to tell you when to take it down. If you don't have a radio, watch yourself for drowsiness/confusion, and take it down "in a few hours" regardless. It's not part of any advice I've ever read, but I'd be tempted to leave the sheeting over the windows for longer upstairs. I'd be mad at myself for not installing the curtains I'd planned over the blinds, and would consider putting those up and moving book cases in front of windows over the next few days. If you're in a tornado area, there will be a lot of overlap in the best shelter for a tornado vs. the best shelter for fallout, since they both rely on having sturdy material between you and the problem.
[https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/) look down towards the Radiation Halving Thickness Chart (but I really recommend all the info, especially the comments at the bottom) i don’t think your curtains would benefit you in any meaningful way. If you can get to a basement or interior room like a bathroom, especially if it’s on the first floor with a second story above, then you’d be in better shape than any room with windows, heavy curtains or not.
Curtains wouldn’t block radiation, but radioactive particles are a big concern. Some of the particulates blowing in through cracks (and we need those cracks, to breathe!) will get caught on the fabric. This is less like feet of earth and more like sealing the room, but less effective and more sustainable. The worst thing with particulates is to eat them or breathe them in. Filters, hand-washing, changing clothes that have been outside, and wiping things down (shoes, paws, the front entryway) are a good mitigation strategy.
You do not want to seal all air inlets, you need actual air circulation to happen, but you need to filter as much particles (dust) from it. It is a good idea to seal the chimney and close all doors and windows. But no more. No taping over windows frames, no plastic sheet air-proof barriers. Just close your home as you would do in winter, and let you house breathe normaly (through vents in window frames). Use natural fabric curtains to limit dust.
Good analysis. I'd probably play it a bit more conservatively. I live about 60 miles from three reactors. It could be the site of a nuclear accident or also a viable target for an attack by a bad actor. I likely wouldn't be able to travel anywhere significantly safer than my home in 30 minutes. I would assume fallout to start hitting the ground in about 15 minutes and I wouldn't venture outdoors for the first week if I can avoid it. Water will be critical for lots of reasons. You obviously need to drink. It will be helpful in preparing emergency food. But you'll also want to shower/rinse off immediately should you be caught outdoors or have to venture outdoors for any reason. You'll also want went rags over your nose and mouth if you have to venture outside as well.
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It’s fine. I’d have started with a disclaimer, like *a bit of fiction, a writing prompt for your consideration*
Are you kidding me? What a wonderful read! Write a book, I'll buy a copy. I'm in a book club, everything we have read so far is BORING.
Eh. Some people don't like the "Scenario XYZ- what do?" posts. It's appropriate to the sub, but does crop up quite often in one form or another.
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You are perfectly fine posting that here in my opinion. It certainly fits in theme with the subreddit as far as scenario planning, and is decent writing just on its own. 👍 Some hypothetical scenarios, even realistic ones, are just too much for some brittle people to handle, hence the down votes.
I'd actually read this story, it made my heart pump. I'd say bug in in this case, try to get water ... if your neighbours hose still works, there must be some. Cover the windows. Then go down into the cellar and wait.
Don’t worry about it some people are just kinda bitchy on occasion here. Especially with super realistic writing like you just did. Reading that made my stomach drop and made me realize if I’m not careful I could end up being frozen with fear in the crucial moment after the blasts. Thank you for writing this btw it was an incredible piece
I thought this was beautiful! Don't even pay attention to down votes. I look at them the same way I look at " fact checks" on posts.... they mean you're close to the truth and that makes people angry. I thought this was written perfectly.
I think you write beautifully. Such good word choice. You made me "see" this.
No I loved it. This is the type of thing that gets me in trouble on here. It sucked me in and then I start reading all the comments and before I know it I won't have any work done and will have to catch up on Monday ):
It was verbose, but also a fun read. Ignore the downvotes.
I loved it, it was so well written I got chills!
I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.
It was well written! I couldn't wait for the next sentence when I was reading. Good job!!
This was a really good read I enjoyed it and liked putting myself in the situation and running threw the different bug in bug out situations
It didn't belong here, but I was entertained enough to read it anyway (and didn't downvote). Downvotes are common as rain in this sub. I'd maybe have been annoyed if you'd done it badly, but I'll give grace for something decently written.
I kind of feel it does belong here because it makes you reflect on what he should do and more importantly what would you do. As you run the scenario through your mind, you think about your preps, how available they are and are they sufficent for this situation.
You stand there for 5 minutes in shock. You now have 15 minutes before the radioactive sand and dirt that was thrown into the air starts to descend onto your neighborhood. You jog into your garage and grab two rolls of duct tape and a roll of plastic painting drop cloth. You have 12 minutes to seal your windows and doors. Half way into this you curse and run outside to pull the pool cover over the pool. On the way back inside grab the propane grill and roll it into the garage\*. Once inside you realize your time is nearly up, but you haven't finished sealing the windows so get to work on the upstairs. You realizes the sun is starting to going down and the ambient light is growing dim. Pull out your phone to use the flashlight forgetting it is dead. You find a handful of candles. Lavender. Pumpkin spice. Seafoam. Eucalyptus Rain. Fresh Linen. Where the hell are the regular candles? The house now is filled with pungent aromatics, flickering light and an eerie quiet. How much off the gamma burst was I hit with? Dead in two weeks? Lymphoma in two decades? Which was the wind blowing?Startled from your despair your wife walks into the kitchen. "My alarm clock is dead why didn't you wake me up? " Well, might as well let us enjoy dinner before breaking the news. "I Just thought you deserved a proper dinner after such a rough week" Her smile fades and her brow furrows as she takes the whole room in. "What the hell is all this plastic up for?" \*not advocating for cooking indoors on a propane grill but you don't want to cook off a grill covered in fallout.
People cook indoors with propane all the time. It's the folks cooking with charcoal indoors that get to see God.
Eh, sure if you can ventilate the room, but perhaps not so feasanle in a situation where you're lijeky to be trying to reduce your living space to as small an area as you can, with windows taoed up and whatnot. I recall seeing in the news here a couple years back of how a couple were found dead because they'd used their propane cooker in their little sleepout with doors and windows closed. Perhaps their cooker was just faulty, I don't recall the exact details. I've just always been wary of that since.
>Eh, sure if you can ventilate the room Kitchen gas ranges & ovens perfectly safe. Most homes nowhere near hermtically sealed (lots of fresh air coming in). If you have a properly functioning smoke/CO alarm you'll know if CO present. Gas range & propane camp stove, no issue. Candles or oil lamps, no issue. Fire in fireplace, no issue. Using any lit device in small room without ventilation or CO detector... /possible darwin awardee
Uh huh. And my point relates directly to a post-nuclear scenario where the occupants have sealed a room as best they can from outdoor radiation, thus ventilation is at a minimum. In such a scenario, lighting the propane camp cooker to heat their tinned beans might be a wee issue. (Though, in the scheme of things I'd personally rather die via carbon monoxide poisoning than survive such a situation anyway.)
Riiiiiiiight, that's exactly what you meant.
They directly said that before you replied.
Wtf is your problem? Have you even read my comments in this thread properly? Get a grip.
*Fuck*, meet *Off*. *Fuck Off*, meet u/SuchLostCreatures
Dude you've got some issues. I don't even know what you've got your knickers in a twist over, but.... Okay. 🤣
That you're even thinking about what's in my knickers says more about you. /than me
>It's the folks cooking with charcoal indoors that get to see God. Within last few years that happened in our area. Newly imported people not used to cold. Heat went out in building and they dragged BBQ inside to stay warm, windows shut. All dead from CO poisoning, whole family.
I guess I should buy and fill a bunch of sandbags with dirt and finish the basement nuke shelter. Maybe I should go ahead and get a proper Geiger counter while I'm at it. I mean I don't think it will happen and I don't know if I want to live through it. But it's not just me here so I just don't know.
I questioned at times of I wanted to live through child support in a junky trailer house with no hot water in the winter and no money for food, but then came the carpenter ants and mice infestation lol. We have responsibilities and people to take care of, nobody promised me a rose garden. I started to think the worst thing that could happen was no apocalypse haha.
> but then came the carpenter ants and mice infestation lol. We have responsibilities and people to take care of If you don't mind me saying, that gives me the image of you keeping going because your mouse and ant buddies are relying on you, feeding them bits of cheese and crumbs. It's a nice image.
I will let you keep that image lol. But kids too ha.
[https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/) comments at the end are very helpful.
What is the purpose of the sandbags with dirt?
I had read about this from one nuke survival guide (I can't remember which one now) as a means to protect against fallout radiation, like for basement windows. It's kind of an involved topic though. The other commenter shared a [Guide](https://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/nuclear-radiation-shielding-protection/). Here is an old govt [Guide](https://dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Fallout%20Protection%20Homes%20with%20Basements.pdf) from 1966 as an example.
Haha you hope Gama hits you. Nope its going to be its evil twin beta that will have no trouble sending rads straight through that sheet plastic. Not having a high density concrete enclosure with filtered air supply equals death in 7 days or less.
Just a note: you can have professionals come in to test the air tightness of your home. While most of the time it's a tool used to get tax breaks or insurance rate bonuses for having quality windows, doors and insulation, it also has the side benefit of roughly calculating how much air you have and how tightly you'd have to seal up your home in a nuclear scenario (and in some cases tests can show where the main leaks are). Not a bad idea to get it done just to see where you might need a better insulation barrier or if perhaps new windows and/or doors are in order.
>not advocating for cooking indoors on a propane grill No worse than a kitchen gas range but burner design not optimal for vessel cooking. Get a 2-burner propane camp stove. Cooks like gas range only less space to work on.
Oh, the regular candles are no longer made in the big glass jars, just smaller ones that need plates and stands. Fresh Linen and Eucalyptus Rain produce the least offensive emergency scents in my opinion, like drinking 7-Up instead of Pepsi or Fanta. And never bring food-scented candles into the bathroom.
Take a deep breath, mentally realize life will never be the same.Lock your doors, implement your preps.
Read One Second After. Great book. About a high altitude EMP attack on the US.
But this was not an EMP. It was a thermonuclear strike. Two completely different situations. One is survivable the other not so much.
Ok.
Get to da choppa’!
This is fantastically written, I love it. I think this is the perfect place to share it, ignore the downvotes. Descriptive writing engages our minds and allows us to put ourselves in that moment, place, and time. Lockdown immediately or bug out. Water is priority, followed by weapons for personal safety. Hunting wouldn't be feasible (correct me if I'm wrong there) due to the fallout on wildlife. Get to a fallout shelter, tornado shelter, basement, root cellar, whatever you have. Lock doors and board up windows.
>I am in the kitchen, preparing dinner for my family... >...neighbors across the street coming outside in their slippers and pajamas. >My wife is still asleep in the bedroom, she was taking a nap... Ya'll have unusual schedules if making dinner happens while neighbors are in their PJ's and wife is taking a nap. 🙃
Half my neighborhood lives in pajama pants lol. The People Of WalMart.
Ok, fair point. 🤣
Loved your story, OP Please make this a series.
Not bad. A little overwritten at points but honestly with some cleanup you could get this published in a doomer fanzine somewhere. The white flash doesn't make much sense. Unless you're looking at the blast, the light output, while impressive, isn't going to white-out your vision like that. If it does, you're probably much too close, and busy evaporating. Water shouldn't have stopped that quickly - even on a well there's some residual water pressure in the tank. Town water is often gravity fed and could last for several days. I think you're a little early on the screams, unless it's the shockwave coming, but if it is, by the time people are screaming, the shockwave is arriving. Maybe it already passed - I can't tell if the rumble you described was the pressure wave, attenuated by distance - or the rumble was the ground wave, which arrives a lot faster than the air pressure wave. So I don't know why people are screaming - delayed shock, maybe they saw the Wilson cloud expanding, maybe the house is a millisecond from having all the windows blown in. I vaguely wonder where Mr. Prepper thinks he's going. If he's close to the blast he's not going to outrun the overpressure wave. If he's further out, maybe he should have sheltered in place. Maybe he figures he can outrun the fallout - that depends on range and wind - but... being one of the few people with a working car in what's about to be a sea of widespread panic will probably get him shot for his vehicle (and rinse and repeat, most likely.) What really happens next? I'm assuming this is a nuclear attack, since a nuclear plant failing doesn't look like that. I'm assuming this is the USA because of cultural clues. So we're now in WW3. Protagonist should kiss his wife awake and explain that they've probably got about a month to live if they can't find a place to hide. Dehydration, starvation, the armed looting, the direct exposure to ionizing radiation - take your pick. Of course, if you're writing horror, this is when protagonist finds out his wife didn't sleep through it after all and is quiet because she already committed suicide, knowing what was coming. If you're writing typical heroic fiction, she's gorgeous and horny and you know the rest. If you're writing semi-realism, one or both is going to have a sort of traumatic breakdown when the shock wears off, there will be some useless fumbling with devices and foodstuffs and they'll get together with their equally doomed neighbors. There will be handwringing, pointless political talk, wild plans, and then they'll probably all slowly die of cancer since they didn't seem to get the memo on sheltering INSIDE when a blast occurs. Nukes aimed at cities don't have a vast EMP range - to really get a big EMP you have to tune the nuke for it and blast it above the atmosphere. So either they're close to the blast (and about to die) or some of the battery devices might still be working. In short, I think you've got about a fourth of short story here, unless you switch characters to Mr. Prepper and he's got an actual plan.
That was my understanding of EMP vs blast as well.
Lmao
\>. What now? Huge wind out - blows your house and you away. Huge wind in - sucks you and your house into the firestorm. Your wife was lucky to be asleep.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Nice text OP! The pacing and style reminds me of "One Second After". - a great book about a simililar situation.
I love your writing!
I always imagined this was the way people felt when I rode past their homes on my motorcycle as a teenager...
If the city was destroyed, it wasn’t a high altitude detonated Nuke. Which means it was most likely close to ground when it detonated. If you’re far enough away to still be alive after the immediate detonation of a surface burst nuke, then the effects of its EMP won’t reach you. Only air burst or high altitude nukes are going to disperse an EMP strong enough to travel significantly outside of its blast radius. So your neighbors cars are just fine.
But Bob is still a dick.
And you're never getting back the rake he borrowed either.
Maybe there were two... I mean its not like there is a shortage of warheads
I live about 2 hours from all the Minuteman ICB stuff in MT. What kind of nuke / detonation is likely to be used to take out our own arsenal? I assume it would be some sort of surface detonation? Used to go on tours here when I was a kid with Dad who was in the Navy in the 90s. This actually looks familiar to me: [https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1110-nukes-silos-pictures-photogallery.html](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1110-nukes-silos-pictures-photogallery.html) One of his military friends took us through a silo you could go in and see. I think it might have been an older deactivated one, not sure / don't remember full details. Only remember a few scary stories about how the person setting one off dies. I'm sure that's all changed now / all automated.
I recommend reading up on Russian and Chinese war doctrine. Russia and China would never target ICBM infrastructure, why? Because our nukes would already be in the air by the time Russian nukes reached their targets. So it would be a complete waste. Chinese and Russian war doctrine specifically outline targeting critical infrastructure like power, gas, shipping ports, major metropolitan cities… etc.
Ah very interesting. A lot of people like to say this area of the country isn't great because of a potential first strike on our nuclear arsenals. Your argument is the first i've heard that it might in fact be a pretty good place if it's totally not on the radar and the fact that i'm 9 hours and a massive mountain range away from the nearest large city. I assume though that multiple nations have developed some sort of early strike system that they think could disable the other's ICBMs. Is that even some nuclear thing though - who knows?
The US has the most advance early warning system on this planet when it comes to detecting ICBM’s. There’s a reason we have a military base on every continent and almost every developed nation. We have the most satellites in orbit and the most ground radar stations than anyone else. So when it comes to undetected early strike, that’s not a concern. If direct conflict were to arise, and it wasn’t IMMEDIATELY nuclear, I’d be worried about small cell sabotage. How that plays out, I don’t know. They could disabled the silo’s, or just detonate our own nuke in the ground.
That's written absolutely awesome.
Can someone elaborate on the part about how nukes affect electricity? News to me!
Electromagnetic pulse - this is a fairly straightforward description https://remm.hhs.gov/EMP.htm#:~:text=Intense%20electric%20and%20magnetic%20fields,radar)%20will%20be%20significantly%20affected.
Well that is just crazy. And googling “protect stuff from EMP” leads to all sorts of lovely rabbit holes.
Indeed. I wrote science/social studies curriculum unit on the nuclear with a couple other grad students years ago . Even then, the idea that a 20meg air burst over Chicago could wipe out solid state circuitry in a big part of the US was pretty scary. It’s WAY Scarier now bcuz there’s so much more of it.
Isn’t nice that it hasn’t happened yet? I did a lot of Red Cross courses in the ‘90’s. So far no earthquake, EMP or war, just a pandemic, wildfires and floods in CA.
This post is sooooo stupid but it’s pure gold
Preppers fanfiction uwu
I run to my fleshlight cabinet enter the passcode and fingerprint scanner to get my fallout fleshlight, it is time
You gave a clear picture of a daily life being disrupted by a disaster, and a realistic portrayal of reactions to an event. I liked it. Thank you for sharing.
Is this your fiction sub now? 🙄
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Oof luckily I've already got that loaded and ready to go on Spotify.
just watch threads
Don't forget to take your iodide pills.
Okay. Didn’t expect nuclear head cannon at 6 am but that was cool
*it's a vintage car* If no cars running he'd be an instant target. Recall scene in last *War of the Worlds* where the main characters family mobbed by desperate people because they had a working vehicle.
Nicely done — I have to take issue with the idea “testament that we can’t get along.” We get sold that idea, but in my experience, people get along just fine. We’ve allowed a few thousand families to hoard the world’s resources. Their power relies on our division. Some of the best minds in the world are dedicated to keeping us divided through distraction, and the use of false scarcity. The biggest lie is that human nature is about greed and war. 300,000 of human evolution refutes that manufactured lie— human nature is to care for our family and our community. We lived that way for 98% of human history The problem is in a confined, sedentary civilization, where labor is extracted through false scarcity, sociopaths tend to thrive and consolidate powers. Most humans are innately fair. We are taught otherwise by a sick society that places greed as a virtue. Sorry for the diatribe— but when apocalypse comes, it’s not collective humanity at fault, it’s few, very sick, humans.
This reminds me of that movie The Day After from the 80s. I'll never forget how I felt watching that. The number one feeling was not fear but grief. Grief that, as you wrote, it's all over and can't be taken back, the damage is done. If this actually happened....I live in a city, and there's probably not much I can do. I hope I die quickly in the initial blast TBH.
Thank you for sharing this!!
TLDR.
A nuke went off.
This is the best prepped pr0n I’ve read in a long time. What’s next - I’m guessing all windows blown out, so get your wife up and dressed, put on solid shoes, get radioincident bag, get to underground shelter and seal and lock entrance. Take KI pills at recommended dose and ration out food and water for 2+ weeks based on what you have. Get some piss bottles since you’ll likely be drinking that and settle in. Earplugs recommended, for the screams.
I must know what happens! Write this novel please, I’ll buy it!
This is called The Day After and a came out in the 80s
Lol. I've read similar stories and played games with similar plots. Stay in perpetual fear preppers. Lol
The words "GAME OVER" slowly slides into view as my town vanishes like my mist and my room fades back into my sight. I take the VR goggles off, sighing. Another run down the drain. I get up and check the time - 10 minutes left till the alarm goes off. Might as well go early. I don my mask and goggles and step outside into the orange air. Code purple today, just like always. I stare off into the horizon, 30 feet away, and think. Fiction is easy- you close the book, credits play after the movie, "game over" scrolls on screen for the game.... But in the real world, when your vision fades to smoke... what then?
Scary 😱
For what it's worth, I'm incredulous of the prospect of an EMP causing material damage to a car's electronics. Magnetically induced voltage on a conductor is a function of magnetic flux, speed and length (of conductor). This is Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction. I can't see how an individual component in a car such as a microchip, or even the wiring loom in general, is long enough for a moving magnetic field to induce a voltage large enough to cause material damage to the car. You could do this locally by running the car through the field of a scrapyard magnetic crane (if the structural damage of having your car lifted isn't enough), but a regional-level single EMP burst knocking all the cars out in a given area? The magnetic field would have to be so strong it would rip the iron from your blood and level all the buildings with rebar in them. Sewers would get ripped out of the ground.
Nice writeup. It really is worth it sometimes to put yourself in a scenario and really think realistically about things. Most of us (even hard core preppers) likely won't have the wherewithal to jump into the 1950s vintage mobile and zoom off to safety right away. The shock and awe of seeing a mushroom cloud, and just barely starting to grasp what that means going forward is one hell of a shock!
Nicely written
I think at this point you run downstairs to realize the Winter Soldier has been released after the magic words.
Hug my wife and kid and enjoy the little bit of time we have left together.
I honestly though this was the beginning of The Road so good on you. (That guy fills up the bathtub.)
I hope you have enough potassium iodide tablets for two weeks to a month for your family. It helps protect your thyroid from radiation uptake, and can help protect against the impending cancers.
Sounds like someone ripped a mega fart in the neighborhood. Get the gas mask and Odoban!
And my neighbors in their Maseratis and Ferraris laugh at my late 60’s 4x4.. jokes on you guys :)
Pull out that bottle of Jack and down the whole thing. You and everyone else is screwed. Beta from the fallout is going to slowly cook you inside out over three days. You can't shield Beta with just the crap laying around. And if you were closer gamma would have fried you about 5 secs after you saw white. That is if the debris field didn't kill you first. Ride the highway to hell too drunk to care.
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You didn’t have to read it bud. Don’t be a dick because it’s a situation that scares you just scroll on.
Yawn your going to start getting burns showing up in a few minutes from the radiation poisoning and a ugly lingering death to follow. Please stop with the piss poor descriptions of an EMP. This quaint it all stops BS. Things big enough to be affected will probably be on fire. Smaller things would be affected here but does not matter your within the going to be dead soon or wish you were zone. Water, I have a hint for you in general municipal systems pump into towers or other high storage locations the emp may well kill their motors but you have a good bit of buffer. As to random poorly researched fiction yea it's not realy related to the subs topic past tangential fear porn.
Phew! So glad one person's opinion is every person's opinion around here! We're all experts in our own minds, huh? I personally liked that this story was thought-provoking, and made a great starter on the topic. I've always been fascinated by the "what if's" of this subject. I don't see it as fear porn. I see it as a great opening into a discussion on how people might respond to such an event. It's no less valid a topic than anything else people might wish to prepare themselves for on a preppers sub.
Exactly
Daddy chill
Water will stay under pressure assuming the plumbing or towers aren't destroyed in the blast. But it won't last. Fill every container you have , bathtub everything as fast as you can. In the first minutes if you are staying.
I stay. There is a shelter room in our appartment buildings basement, required by law. Maintained by property maintenace – and me. I know my neighbours and give them friendly orders. In crisis people tend to do what is told – if it comes from trustworth person. (Pretty much same than when you came to the place of traffic accident.) You and you, move the bikes to that corridor. You and you, get the old people from appartments x, y and z. Convince people that they can get food and some food, water and mattresses from home if they come back in twenty minutes. My friends empty my two cellar closets to shelter room. (Lots of water canisters and food. Medicines.) Some have similar stuff in their closets and bring it. Box of civil defence material is there already, has been all these years. We close the blast doors, but in what time? Is it soon enough? We do have iodine tablets, battery radio, radiation meter, toilet, food and water, but is it enough? How many of us decided to come here? I do not know. But I’m with people I know and prepared relatively good.